Annealing shells

[Pipefitter]

Wouldn't water quenching after annealing defeat the process?

I thought you heat and allow to cool naturally to anneal, heat and quench to harden?

This is true with steel, but with copper base alloys it is just the temperature reached that is important. The only way to harden copper based alloys is to "work" them (draw the item down or hammer it out).

[308Jeff]

Two reasons I love this website:

1) There are a LOT of good people on here
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[725]

I understand brass to be unaffected by water quenching after annealing. Brass only hardens with work hardening.